[Choir] today's service

[Christen Lynn]

Thank you Dick for sharing this with us. And thank you for the high standards you set for the choir and your inimitable style in bringing out the very best in us.I too heard such wonderful appreciation of the anthem after the service this morning. 
What a joy and privilege it is to be part of this choir. Christen
  “I wish I could show you, when you are lonely 
or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.”
~Hafiz of Shiraz~
  Christen Lynn
802-696-2162  Cell802-659-4174 Skype with Voice Mail

 

   On Sunday, February 10, 2019, 2:48:46 PM EST, Richard Riley via Choir <choir at unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org> wrote: 
 
 "I Believe" had a very significant impact on listeners this morning - or so I believe. My back, of course, is to the congregation, but at the end of every piece you sing I DO listen for a murmur, or the sound of arms being raised, or (of course) for the occasional applause in our more extroverted pieces. I could tell that you touched them this morning, and for that I am glad for you, and for them.
I was so glad that Joan was able to amplify on the text - that they were words scratched on the walls of a cellar in Cologne, Germany by a Jew hiding from Nazi persecution - as that was not indicated anywhere in the edition that we were using.

Now, here's a different, rather oblique reflection on a different moment in today's service, and a request:
When I was a choirboy back in the mid-to-late 60s, I sang in an Episcopal cathedral in Baltimore. Over time, as I became a student of the organist/choirmaster, he began to tell me stories about what he had experienced while making music in the cathedral. One story that I've never forgotten was about what happened one time while he was playing the postlude. He was playing a piece by Bach, who as I'm sure many of you know, wrote some absolutely great music for the organ. But in this cathedral, it was not at all uncommon for the parishioners to start talking the minute the postlude began. And if it was a big, loud piece, everyone talked more loudly. As the organist played this great (loud) piece by Bach, the noise level of the congregants got so loud that he became frustrated that no one was listening. So in the middle of the Bach, without pause, he began playing "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen", and, you guessed it, no one noticed! Not a great moment in church music.
So I pass along this observation and request from a fellow who in the congregation  this morning. One of the ways that UCM is special is that we sit and listen to the postlude, and indeed Eliza has "taken" us to some wonderful musical places at this point in the service because we are listening. This morning this gentleman's focus on the music was distracted by the popping sound of 3-ring binders while Eliza was playing. You were doing this to be ready for my eager collection of your music at the end of the service, but lets make sure that both you and I go into "post-service" mode only when we are truly done with the service.
Finally, also at the end of today's service, I had a request from Tom Schersten, one of our newest members of the choir, for the names of all who are currently singing. Tom is a bass. Some of you who live in the far-off lands of soprano and tenor are harder for him to know. And I can imagine that there are others of you who feel similarly about those exotic people who sing outside your section. Here's a list of those who have been singing in recent weeks: 
SopranosBrenda Bean
Beth DamonKairn KelleyFran Krushenick
MaryJean McKelvy
Charlotte Root
Ginny SassamanLani SeifertCecile SherburnJoan Stepenske
AltosBettie Barnes
Liz BenjaminBronwyn Fryer
Erin KelleyCatherine Lowther
Mhairi Paget
Nan PrinceSusan Bull RileySue Stukey

TenorsSarah HookerEd HutchinsonPhil MorseDonia PrinceLindsay Wade

BassesBill PaineChristen LynnBob Riggen
Tom ScherstenHarris Webster







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